Rory MacDonald: “I’m not worried about him and I’m not worried about this fight.”

22-year old welterweight Rory MacDonald has made quite a name for himself since making his UFC debut, tagged with being the future of MMA and uncrowned champion. Now it appears he’s bought into his own hype, recently showing a level of self-assurance exceeding that of even pound-for-pound greats.

In his latest blog entry for SportsNet.ca, MacDonald’s supreme self-belief was made evident through a number of comments directed at Che Mills who he’ll face later this month at UFC 145.

“I went away and watched one of his early fights, just to see who he was, but I haven’t watched any of his others. The idea was to just familiarize myself with who he was, what he looked like and how he fought, and then that was enough. I don’t feel the need to go through his entire career box set in order to gain an insight into what kind of threat he will try and present me with on April 21,” wrote MacDonald. “I really don’t care about anything else. My sole concern is to improve and work on my own skill-set and then use that to crush my opponent on the night.”

While studying tape is by no means a training requirement, and MacDonald isn’t alone in his decision to avoid doing so, the 12-1 Canadian’s confidence goes far beyond any benefit potentially derived from a structured gameplan, seeing only a minimal threat in Mills rather than a 14-4 competitor with eleven finishes on a five-fight winning streak.

“I hold no fear of standing toe-to-toe with this guy,” MacDonald explained. “He’s the one who needs to worry about me, as I’m fairly certain I’ll be better than he is in every single area of this fight. He’s going to have to adjust to my style. I have many, many weapons in this fight and he will have to be cautious in everything he does.”

I’m not worried about him and I’m not worried about this fight,” the TriStar stand-out continued. “I feel like I’m at such a high level right now and my confidence is at an all-time high. With that in mind, I don’t visualize this fight with Che Mills going very long.”

More than half of MacDonald’s wins have come in the opening round of action. Catch his fight with Mills as part of a card headlined by light heavyweight champion Jon Jones putting his gold up for grabs against rival Rashad Evans.

Im gad that such a young awesome fighter is so confident, but I think it was his previous humility that made him such a fast learner…usually when heads get huge thats when people stop improving….just for this I hope Che knocks his head off.

I’m a fan of Rory and I’m glad he’s confident BUT I can’t give him a pass when I reoccuringly call out Jones on his cockyness and I admit Jones does back up his cockiness but I still don’t like it… sooo Rory take it down a notch, remember there’s 2 out comes to the guys who are dubbed the future of their division… you either become a Vera or you become a Jones… there’s a lot more Vera’s at the end of the day so don’t get ahead of yourself.